algea out of control!!!! my aquarium is pretty much dead

[xtremedelta]

Ok, please someone help me, I've had a reef tank for about 5 years, and I have no idea what started this algae issue, but its insane. I think most of it is hair algea, but I'm not sure. My glass is covered, as well as all my rocks. I have lost all my corals but a green star polip rock. I have done water changes every week. shortened the light cycle. I've been putting marine SAT in every week. And I've even bought some stuff that you put directly on the hair algea. but nothing helps. I have also changed the feeding of the fish to a bare minimum. Please can someone help me before I loose my fish too.

Thanks

[sean48183]

Start a fuge immediately whether it's in a sump or above the tank. Get it going quick. Put super intense light on it and reduce your main tanks light. Hair algae will prefer fuge over main tank. Within a month algae in main tank will be receding. Good luck!

[xtremedelta]

ok , I can get that going.. ..


Is there any thing I can do to start killing off this algea in the mean time?

[RamPuppy]

tweeze it off and manually remove it.

I would also reccomend a phos-ban reactor.

[xtremedelta]

kewl. Any one know a quick fix??????? anything would help. Litterally this thing is getting worse by the day and so far, I've been merciless to its grasp

[carolinareefs]

I have had great luck with red leg hermit crabs. They literally tear through the green hair like lawnmowers. Get a bunch of them and let them go to work, while also removing it by hand.

[Zoalander]

Emerald crabs, lots of them. Fuge running 24/7 with cheato, water changes, phosban.

[Zoalander]

Oh and feed every other day. Is this your 55, you are over stocked also get rid of both tangs since they are obviously not touching the algea.

[Brandino007]

You could alway look around in your area at the LFS to see if you could "rent" a Sea Hare. Or since all your corals are gone you could always leave the lights off and keep doing water changes.

[fish are life]

maybe getting a UV sterilizer also might help.

[xtremedelta]

well I bought a algea attack pack from Dr. Fosters Smith. for 100gal. still nothing. I acctually am down to a blue tang, a 6 stripe reef wrasse, and a royal gamma. I am only feeding ever 3 days. and I have about 5 emerald crabs.... But the fuge I gotta figure out how to get running again. I have a Sump with dual over flow rated to 200 gal. and I have a coralife 220 skimmer. I am doing water changes, 5 gal a week. Still not really cutting it. I've never seen anything like this before.

Also, what is a phosban? Like a phosphate sponge, because I have that too :\

[fish are life]

try upping your water changes to 10G a week

[xtremedelta]

wow, 10 a week , that sounds kinda extreme, but I guess at this point I have nothing to loose

[NaH2Ofreak]

Are you using RODI water???

[xtremedelta]

Yeah, I am using that kind of water. there is a reef store that makes it. I should probably get my own filter and start making my own.

[BigReefing]

i have a little big of a algea problem to say the least. I am hopeing that the kent posphate spunge I got helps. I live in wayne county ohio and I heard our water makes algea grow. I have a ro unit as well. Hopefull I should have some extra money this weekend to get a kick but clean up crew, but my problems don't sound quite as bad as yours. I do a water change ever week and have 3 fish. I am putting on a tunze system soon. i heard high water flow kills the algea as well. With 2 tunze 6000s, I think that will help some what.

[reefshadow]

Manually remove as much as you can by taking out all the rock and scrubbing it in a bucket. Keep up with water changes using ro water only. How is your flow? Having ample flow will help keep detritus in suspension until the skimmer can remove it. Make sure your alk and ph is up there. I've noticed that nuisance algae really seems to prefer lower flow, alk and ph.

I don't think there are many critters that can keep up with a lush growth of H.A. If you get it scrubbed down to a film they can help take over with removal.

Putting a macro that the tang won't like too much like halimeda or cheato in the main tank or fuge if you get it running will help take up nutrients.

Algae is always caused by nutrient problems, the issue still exists no matter how many critters you throw in the tank, and in fact can be made worse. H.A. in particular likes to grow in areas where detritus has settled. Aggressive manual removal OUTSIDE the tank coupled with increased flow should really help.

Do you have a sand bed? 5 years is a long time and it may be that your s.b. is totally saturated with phosphates. The evidence is anecdotal, but alot of reefers have reported bad nutrient problems with s.b.'s around the 4-5 year mark. The tank is only a 55, and if you cannot get a handle on the situation, you may consider replacing your s.b. Just an idea. You can test this by putting some sand in a container with tank water, shaking it vigorously and then after it settles do a phos test on the water.

If this was my tank and at only 55 gallons, I would probably do a complete tear down. Remove and scrub the rocks, remove and replace the s.b. or go bare bottom, refill with a new batch of water, and start over again.

Good luck!!!

:)

[xtremedelta]

hmm I don't know if flow helps. I have 2 mag 12s as returns, and the water is moving all over the place. So i don't know if movement is good or bad. If its good, it can't be all that good

[xtremedelta]

reefshadow, I have REALLY been thinking about a tear down. I removed my sandbed about a year ago, because of some issues it was causing. A friend of mine had a similar issue but not as bad. he swiched to all actinic in a PC, and that seemed to really help. Also he took all rocks out, and layed them in the sun for a week. then re cured them. So, that is a option as well. I don't think I'm ready to kill and recure all my rocks just yet. But, I will put them in a tub and scrub them. Good Call! I think I'll try that tomarrow.

[reefshadow]

Yeah, good luck to you. It seems like this problem makes more people quit than anything

:)

[xtremedelta]

LMAO :) I'll never quit :) I've battled red slime, and beat it to death :) its only a matter of time before I kill this cat too!!! And after I do, There is no algea that will stand a chance against me.

[xtremedelta]

But also any other suggestions are more than welcome!!!

[BigReefing]

GO XSTREAMDELTA, HELL YES, I TOTALY UNDESTAND HOW YOU FEEL. NO MATER WHAT DIES OR WHAT HAPPENS I AM NEVER GONA QUIT. ITS A WAR OUT THERE IN THE BIG TANK AND I AM GONA WIN

[Maker]

I think you have some good suggestions so far to work with. I would add a few to the list so far.

First, what are your water parameters? Phosphates, nitrates, calcium, Alk, etc....? If your phospates are too high then that's just food for algae. Same with nitrates.

Second, a refugium/sump would be useful but perhaps not the be all to end all in this one case. You already have the algae so I would rely on the 'manual labor' solution. i.e. every day reach into your tank a hundred times and pull out some algae. But, the fuge will help in the long run.

Third, more animals (reef attack pack) is just more 'poop'. 'Poop' is food for algae so I'm not sure at this point they would be helpful. Same w/ tangs or blennies that might eat some algae. They will never remove as much algae as you are capable of removing (see above).

Fourth, make sure that LFS water is really GOOD ro/di water. Request a TDS reading from the store to make sure their filters are still up to snuff and that you are not just getting regular tap water.

I feel like I'm just repeating what Reefshadow has already said but I'll go on.

Patience! You've had this tank set up for a bit. Yes? You don't have to cook your live rock out of the water cause then you just have dead rock. That ain't no fun. Go very slow on what you do. In this hobby you'll tend not to regret the slow decisions you make, just the snap ones. It will take what seems like forever but you'll eventually lick this problem.

And then something else will go wrong... But that's where the fun is! (gawd, that is sick)

Maker

[Alaskan Reefer]

My 75 was overrun with HA about 2 years ago, and I mean overrun -- about 75% total tank coverage. Here's what I did to remove it all in three weeks...

1. Phosphate Sponge (just one brand, there are several) -- 2 media bags, changed every three days.
2. Added HOB refugium with chaetomorpha -- lights 24/7
3. Cleaning... Manually scrub rocks daily with toothbrushes, catch HA and remove with a net. Turkey baster and/or powerheads on LR to blow out detritus. After about half an hour (detritus settled), 20% water change, including siphoning detritus out of the sand. Daily. Yeah, it's a lot of water changes. Eventually you'll just be blowing out detritus daily (hair algae won't grow back fast enough), and that's a good thing.
4. Stop feeding phosphate rich foods -- like mysis.
5. Leave lights on LONGER. This helps the hair algae grow, and as long as you're removing it with your toothbrush and net, you are exporting phosphates.
6. Kalk drip -- kalk helps raise pH, which hair algae doesn't like. It also helps your skimmer specifically with phosphate -- which I believe is due to binding chemically and making the particles easier to remove. I'm not sure on the chemistry, but I know it works. The added bonus is that you have a nice calcium and alkalinity supplementation scheme along with topoff water already in place when you're done.

Adding critters doesn't do anything you can't do with a toothbrush and a net, and as mentioned here the critters eat the algae, use a little of the energy, and then poop it out as more detritus -- the net effect is nowhere near as good as blowing out rocks and really getting at the problem (stored phosphate). You may want a handful of turbo snails (every tank needs a little help with even film algae) and red leg hermits (I don't like hermits at all since they mostly just eat leftover food, dead fish, and snails -- but most red legs do eat hair algae) to help keep the small stuff from gowing back. Emeralds do eat it as well, but they get big (I had one over 5" across) and once they get big say goodbye to your snails. Forget the test kit, your water will test clean for phosphate or nearly so -- the hair algae is using it to grow. Just the presence of hair algae talls you all you need to know -- you have phosphate in the system, and you have a lot of it.

The battle is getting the phosphate out of the system, the hair algae is just a symptom, not the problem. You can conquer it, just be more than persistent. You'll know you're done when your rock "blows" clean with a powerhead -- then and only then you break out the phosphate test if you want to see how you did.

HTH, it worked for me. :)

[Alaskan Reefer]

Oh, and the RO/DI for water changes, topoff, and kalk mixing (any time you put water in the tank) goes without saying. I personally use tap water, but I happen to live in an area where tap water is extremely clean -- TDS at less than 1% of the national drinking water standard. In 99% of the places you get tap water, it isn't good enough.

[cfarrow2]

Alaskan Reefer....you sell money???

[Alaskan Reefer]

Yes indeed, I'm a mortgage office manager. :)

[OnTheReef]

Get a copy of Julian Sprung's book "Algae: A Problem Solver Guide" ISBN 1-883693-02-0. I second the mysis comment too; I can count on a detectable phosphate and nitrate level every time I use that food. I still feed with mysis occassionaly, but I thaw and rinse it in RO water first and only sparing amounts.

[BigReefing]

I put in kent marine phosphate spunge last night in a mesh micro like the directions say. Now my stuff in my tank is dieing because of it. I am about to do major water change. I think my problem with phosphates is because I was feeing with mysis shrimp every day. Well I stoped that awhile ago, but now I got a slight algea problem and a major something else problem.

[Alaskan Reefer]

Big -- get it out, run carbon, do major water change. Some phosphate removers are aluminum based, which can cause problems with inverts -- I doubt it will kill them if you address it immediately. I'm not sure if the brand Phosphate Sponge is one of those, but you could also try PhosBan, RowaPhos, PhosGuard, and the bevy of other products. With any of them, you should rinse, rinse again, and rinse again to prevent the small particles from escaping your mesh bag -- that's why they want it to be a tight "micro" type mesh.

Mysis every day is a sure fire recipe for hair algae. You have to rinse the heck out of them before putting it in your tank, and even then it's a very phosphate-rich food. It doesn't help that mysis introduction basically shuts down most skimmers for 4-6 hours either.

[sean48183]

My friend do not tear your tank down. Do scrub the rocks. What I did was get 2 buckets of old water change water and use the first one to scrub the rocks with a toothbrush and the second to dip the rocks in but good. This will take care of the problem short term but you must start a refugium and get algae going. Algae is the single best filtration you can have. Notice tanks with lots of hair algae never have detectable phosphate or nitrate. It literally consumes these problems. So the thing is to make it grow somewhere outside your main tank. I am overstocked and overfeed and I have no nitrates or phosphates and best of all no hair algae in my main tank. Here is a pic of my fuge set up.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y261/Sean48183/Tankwfuge.jpg